Rossi keeps pressure on Hayden

Valentino Rossi yesterday kept his slender championship hopes alive when he finished second in the Czech MotoGP on his Camel Yamaha, while the points leader, Nicky Hayden, slumped to a disastrous ninth place with a shredded rear tyre on his Repsol Honda.

The Italian had set himself the target of winning as many as possible of the six remaining rounds in an attempt to overhaul Hayden. Loris Capirossi blocked that ambition yesterday, winning easily on the 3.63-mile Brno circuit on a day when his Marlboro Ducati and Bridgestone tyres chimed perfectly. The upstart 20-year-old, Dani Pedrosa, several times thrust his Repsol Honda past Rossi, but eventually finished behind the Italian in third, which leaves him in second place overall and establishes him as a real title challenger.

Hayden, the 25-year-old American, now has 203 points and leads his team-mate Pedrosa by 25, while Rossi has climbed to third , 38 points behind Hayden, with five rounds remaining in which to maintain his grinding pressure on his rivals.

"I was second from the start, and I tried to wait to see if Loris' tyres would slide. But every lap the distance became bigger,"Rossi said. Pedrosa admitted handing Rossi the advantage in their battle for second. "I came up from ninth, but made a mistake and lost a second," he said.

The Californian Kenny Roberts Jr won an intense five-man battle for fourth on his British-built Team KR211V, from Marco Melandri (Fortuna Honda), Casey Stoner (LCR Honda) and John Hopkins (Rizla Suzuki). Hayden, who held third place in the opening laps, was knocked back to ninth on the last corner by Shinya Nakano (Kawasaki).

Capirossi's 27th victory makes his the longest winning career in history; he claimed his first success in 1990 in the 125cc class. "I am really old, I know that," the 33-year-old Italian joked. "On the last two laps I was talking to the bike saying, 'Don't stop - help me to the flag'."